Indonesia has the world's fourth-longest coastline. Its fishing industry employs 6 million people. Fishing accounts for 5 per cent of Indonesia's GDP. In 2004 the United Nations counted 729,682 boats in Indonesia. Since then, the number has climbed.

Dr Sam Bateman, a retired Australian navy commodore now at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security says it's not ''a particularly bright idea''.

''It is so open to abuse. What is a fair price for a boat in any case?'' he asks.

Mr Morrison told PolitiFact he was not proposing wholesale purchases, but rather ''targeted, intelligence-led buybacks''.

His policy has been put forward without the support of Indonesian authorities. Mahfudz Siddiq, head of Indonesia's parliamentary commission for foreign affairs, says it is ''crazy'' and ''degrading''.

Dr Christopher Roberts of the ANU National Security College doubts it is feasible ''in terms of implementation, let alone an agreement with the Indonesian side''.

''Do people smugglers come forward and say, 'Please buy my boat?' It would need a lot of money when people smugglers can put 100 people on a boat at $5000 a person.''

He says some analysts have labelled Kevin Rudd's plan to resettle all boat people in Papua New Guinea a ''39-day policy'' - an unworkable election fix. Morrison's might be labelled a ''15-day policy''.

On the ABC's Insiders on Sunday Opposition Leader Tony Abbott conceded it was possible the Coalition would never buy a single boat.